Hoddmímis holt
by FlowerPrincessoftheUniverse
Summary: Age of Ultron inspired. For the first time, Thor wonders how the end will come to pass. The losing side of the battle is not pleasant.


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 **Hoddmímis holt**

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 **Summary: Age of Ultron inspired. For the first time, Thor wonders how the end will come to pass. The losing side of the battle is not pleasant.**

 **Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Marvel or Norse mythology. All quotes belong to their respective creators.**

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 _This_ , Thor muses, _must be Ragnarok_.

The foundations of the Sokovian city crumble overhead, the earth hanging together, connected to the ground by a single long channel of earth and metal. Thor can see the mortals on the steadily-rising land screaming, scattered and running without purpose despite the shepherding of the SHIELD evacuation teams.

 _ **"Do you see the beauty of it? The inevitability? You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword and the Earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers; turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing! When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world... will be metal."**_

Thor can see no beauty in this travesty; only horror, and painful memory.

To be fair, even Loki had not sought to entirely obliterate the mortals, only to enslave and rule over them. ( _Jὂtunheim, though, was another matter…_ )

Deluded though the metal creature may be, it is right in predicting the outcome of their failure. For should the hamlet in the sky fall, then all of Midgard would crumble. The fate of the realm hangs upon the precarious balance of a hovering rock.

Never before has Thor felt the unfavourable odds so clearly.

The evacuation is swift and precise, yet more die under buildings and on their way to the boats' shelter. The flying crafts are filling with people, but still hundreds, even thousands are dead or dying. Thor's might is failing, and his allies may not be enough. The destruction of Midgard appears imminent... in what way is this not the twilight of the eternal cycle?

Thor winces. Loki is supposed to be the one to cause Ragnarok, yet his brother fell in Svartalfheim; has the end not been averted thusly? Or is this Loki's legacy, the vile gem he commandeered ( _or was commandeered by?_ ) spawning evil in the mind of the metallic beast, fulfilling his destructive destiny even beyond his death?

 _Defeat is for the weak, the strong wrest victory from the Norns themselves!_

Thor's old lessons are glorious but selective; not all battles are won, even by the strong. He feels helpless, and there is naught he can do. Once he longed for the glories of battle and thrived in bloodlust, but he wishes neither Valhalla nor Hel upon the innocents whose lives have been very literally uprooted.

Thor wishes for peace, even as he knows they are the prayers of a fool. ( _ **Fool**_ _, Loki has always called him, and oaf, and lout; but even as colour drained from his brother's body he had pleaded with the Norns not to take away another of his dwindling family…_ )

The highest point of the hovering hamlet teeters, in a laughable parody of the World Tree. He imagines Asgard at the very top, for his bonds in Midgard have made the realm as important as his home. Lifting off the ground, Thor steers Mjolnir upwards, to the destroyer Ultron, for one final battle. If the Chitauri leviathan is the Midgard serpent which claims his life, then so be it.

…

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 **Aaand that's why Thor goes back to Ultron's church for the final pummelling.**

 _ **Hoddmímis holt**_ **is the wood where the humans Líf and Lífþrasir survive the events of Ragnarok, and so go on to become the progenitors of the human race. So the title kinda represents Earth (Midgard), and hope. At least, it is intended to; though it appears a piece of gibberish.**

 **This is my shortest piece ever. I'm creating a record here, people!**

 **This is entirely independent of my other upcoming Ragnarok fic, which is a Loki-centric five-shot and is in no way connected to Avengers: Age of Ultron.**


End file.
